Stolen Histories
by hyperpsychomaniac
Summary: Skullboy has been trying to find out where he comes from for as long as he can remember, but when he finally gets his answer will he be able to accept it?
1. Chapter 1

**A/n:** Well, I've been addicted to Ruby Gloom for I think about the last week. As a result, my subconcious mind finally convinced me to start a fic... Only the first bit so far, I'm testing the waters with this so to speak; subsequent chapters will probably be a bit longer. Let me know what you think! ^^

* * *

It was just another typical, gloomy day in Gloomsville. The clouds were out, and a light rain fell, rain pushed by a wind that came in spurts and gusts. An absolutely perfect day, and Ruby and Iris were outside enjoying it. They played hopscotch, just outside the Mansion, and were having a great time. That is, until they were interrupted by the invasive roar of an overtaxed engine.

"What on earth is that?" Ruby blinked, nearly falling over as she stood on one leg on square number four.

The roar got louder, and then a motorcycle ripped over the crest of the nearest hill, spitting steam and the occasional flame. All the while the roar grew louder, undercut by a series of rumbling undertones, until motorcycle and rider came to a stop in front of the two girls. Close up, it could be seen the rider wore leather, and a dark helmet that obscured his face.

"_Can we help you_!?" Ruby shouted over the roar of the engine.

The rider shouted something in reply, pointing at his bike. Then he reached down, turned off the engine, and removed his helmet.

For a brief moment, Ruby thought the rider was Skullboy, perhaps having found some new family history to 'try on'. But the skeleton on the motorcycle wasn't Skullboy; he was someone neither Ruby nor Iris had seen before, though he did bear a resemblance to their friend.

"Is this Gloomsville?" he asked.

"Yup!" Iris declared. "You've found Gloomsville! Well… it's right down there, but we're still technically in Gloomsville… you know, depending on where exactly…"

"Yes," Ruby interrupted her ever excitable friend, "You're in Gloomsville."

The boy let out a sigh, sounding relieved. "Then half my quest is done. Tell me, do you know of anyone in this town by the name of 'Skullyboy'?"

Ruby and Iris both exchanged glances.

"Yes," said Ruby. "We do… we can take you to him. Um… how do _you_ know Skullboy?"

The boy was already smiling at Ruby's answer, but he smiled even wider as he gave his. "Skullboy is my brother… I've been looking for him for a long time."


	2. Chapter 2

Skullboy was practically beside himself. He dashed from one end of his room to the other, showing his newfound relation his possessions in a flurry of jumbled words. "… and this is my telescope… when I thought I was from a long line of astronomers… because I had a telescope… and liked looking at the stars… but then… oh! My hat… I think I thought I was a…" he paused, looking at the furry hat, which had most likely once been an animal. "Raccoon? No, that's not right…" He trailed off, scratching his head, and then tossed the furry hat back over his shoulder. "I guess it doesn't matter what I thought, Bones," he shrugged. "I guess you can tell me everything I need to know."

Bones smiled. He'd been patiently waiting for his brother's excitement to die down. "All in good time, Skullboy," he said, clapping a hand on his younger brother's shoulder. "I'm just glad I found you. You have no idea how long I've been searching."

"Well, maybe… I don't know if you've noticed," Skullboy glanced around his room, "but I've been searching for a long time too."

Bones smiled again. "You really want to find out about our family, don't you?"

Skullboy's eyes brightened. He'd been avoiding asking his brother directly. "Uh huh… would… you tell me?"

"After I get some sleep," Bones stretched. "I've been riding all day."

"Of course… you can use my bed if you want."

"Thanks. Oh… I just wanted to ask. I take it you're good at building things… working out problems…?"

Skullboy thought for a moment. "I guess… Ruby keeps telling me I am. She's usually right about stuff like that. Why do you ask?"

"I'll tell you later tonight, promise," Bones yawned. "About everything."

"I can't wait!" Skullboy nodded furiously. He paused briefly, then grinned and threw his arms around his brother. "I'm so glad you're here!"

Bones returned the embrace. "Yeah, me too."

----

It was later that night, probably closer to the wee hours of the morning. Gloomsville was darker than Doom Kitty sitting in the shadows of a dark room. The only light near the two brothers came from a single street lamp, and dim security lighting shining through the windows of the Gloomsville Museum.

"Bones?" Skullboy asked. "Tell me again why we're at the Gloomsville Museum?"

"Scouting…" Bones replied, sounding slightly distracted. He peeked over the top of the bushes they were hiding behind, holding a pair of binoculars to his eyes. "Well… the lighting's not too desirable… but I think we can work with it… there's no guards outside or anything." It almost sounded like he was speaking to himself.

"It's just the Museum…" said Skullboy, raising an eyebrow. "You know, it'd be easier to visit during opening hours… which I expect is obvious… so just _why_ are we here? You promised you'd tell me."

"I did." Bones lowered the binoculars. "We can't do much tonight anyway… we should pay a proper visit in the morning… see what's inside…"

"Bones…" said Skullboy. It was partially a demand for an answer, but Skullboy also sounded nervous. Though his brother was being vague, he wasn't sure he liked what he seemed to be saying.

"Alright, alright…" Bones sighed, and sat down next to Skullboy. "Look, you and I… we're from a long line of… liberators."

"Liberators? That sounds… good. But perhaps a little obscure… just what do we 'liberate'?"

"Stolen histories. That museum of yours has likely stolen many priceless artefacts from peoples too poor to stake their claim to their rightful possessions. What we're going to do, what our family does, we're going to return those items back to their rightful owners!"

Skullboy looked at his brother for a brief moment. It didn't take him long to work out the bottom line. His eyes widened, and he stood up, almost as if to distance himself from Bones. "You want to rob the Museum!?"

"Crudely put…?" Bones sighed. "… yes."

"You want me to help you steal for you? I can't do that… _you_ can't do that!"

"They stole it first…" Bones tried to explain.

"You're telling me," Skullboy interrupted. "That our family are all… criminals!?"

"No! We're not!" Bones stood up now. He was getting angry. "Skullboy, there is an artefact I am sure is in that museum… it's called the 'Crystal Skull'. Now, I came here to return that to the people it really belongs to. You can help me, or not, it's your choice. But you told me you wanted to find out about your family? You have! And this is what we do!"

"I am not going to help you with this! It's wrong!" Skullboy shook his head. "You came here to get that artefact… and I thought you said you'd come to find me."

"I did."

"Yeah, well you know what? You can liberate your own 'stolen histories'!" Skullboy snapped. He turned on his heel and stormed off.

----

"Skullboy's been in his room all day." Ruby sat outside on the Mansion's steps, worrying about her friend.

"Yeah… and I saw his brother leave for town a few hours ago," put in Frank. He and Len sat next to her. "You think they're fighting?"

"Already? Doesn't seem a great start… poor Skullboy… I hope they work it out… this should be happy for him."

"It'd suck," said Len. "He's finally found his brother… only to be apart again. Hey, Frank? You'd never leave me if we fought… right?"

"No, Len. I wouldn't," Frank sighed. "I couldn't if I wanted to."

"Oh, right…" said Len. "So… what are we going to do about Skullboy and Bones?"

"I'm going to go talk to Skullboy," said Ruby, standing up. "Maybe I can find out what's wrong, or at least cheer him up."

----

"I have nothing _to_ talk to Bones about," huffed Skullboy. "There's nothing more to it."

Ruby was now up in Skullboy's room. Skullboy paced the floor, looking agitated.

"Yeah… but what exactly did he _do_?"

"It's not what he did… it's more like who he is. Who he's trying to tell me _I_ am… but I'm _not_!"

"Skullboy, you're not making any sense…"

Skullboy sighed. "I'm sorry, Ruby. I know you're trying to help. But… Bones got around to telling me what he did… what his… _our_ family does. I just don't think I can be that."

"Skullboy, you've _been_ nearly everything. Well, it seems like it. How do you know you can't be this unless you try? I know you can be anything you put your mind to. Every book you read, or idea you get in your head… when you try to become that, well… I guess you always do it so well. Why don't you just give this a try; give your brother a chance? Who knows, maybe you'll find out it's not so bad. He is your brother after all."

"You really think so?" He sighed, and then dropped cross-legged to the floor. "Maybe I can't be anything I want. After all, everything I try out I just throw away, never to think of again. Maybe I can't be anything other than what I'm supposed to be. I've been so many other things, perhaps you're right, and this is it."

"_Could_ be it," said Ruby, resting a hand on Skullboy's shoulder. "But it wouldn't hurt to try. So… what _does_ he want you to do?"

Skullboy paused for a long moment. "Oh," he finally said, "don't worry about it for now, Ruby. I'll let you know how everything goes in the morning."

Ruby had a niggling feeling that Skullboy was trying to hide that answer from her. But it was obviously worrying him at the moment, so once he'd sorted himself out, he'd surely tell her. She didn't really have the heart to push him anymore now… despite that slight worry she couldn't shake. "Okay… I guess I'll see you in the morning."

Skullboy nodded. "Ruby…" he said, just as the girl nearly stepped out the door. "I… er…"

"Yes, Skullboy?"

"Ah... thanks."


	3. Chapter 3

**A/n:** *cough*Pleasereview*cough*. :)

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"I went to the Museum today."

"I figured as much."

"You should've come too."

"I already know what the inside of the Museum looks like."

Bones was on his motorcycle again. Under his motorcycle jacket he was dressed completely in black. He also had a black beanie on top of his head. The motorcycle had two leather saddle bags strapped to the back, and it was now clear to Skullboy that those contained everything Bones thought he would need to liberate what he called 'stolen histories' from the Gloomsville Museum.

Skullboy looked him over for a moment more, arms folded, then sighed. "Have you got anything in those bags for me?"

Bones grinned. "I knew you'd come around. Everything we need is in those bags. Now, hop on and hold on!"

It took only moments for the two to make it down to the Museum. Bones didn't push the motorcycle too hard, in an effort to reduce its noise, but it still spluttered horribly all the way. They stopped a short distance from the Museum entrance and concealed the motorcycle.

Now, Bones stood outside the Museum, looking it over one more time as if there could've been something, anything he may have missed.

Half a moment later, Skullboy stepped out from behind a bush, now dressed all in black like his brother. "How's this?"

"Great…" Bones grinned. "You certainly look like you know what you're doing…"

"Really!? Thanks!" Skullboy smiled for a moment, but then paused, looking at the ground. "Bones… are you sure about this? I mean… we're about to _steal_ from a Museum!"

"It's not stealing if it doesn't belong to them in the first place. Look, I know you're a bit nervous about this… but I've had a good look around this place… trust me, we won't get caught. Once we get inside, and you see what we need to do, you'll be fine, I promise."

"Alright then…"

The two brothers snuck up to a window. Bones took something from the black backpack he carried. Using the device, he cut a large circle from the window pane and then carefully removed it.

"Climb in," said Bones, "but try not to touch the edge. I'm not sure if it's alarmed."

Skullboy did as he was told, closely followed by Bones. He was familiar with the Gloomsville Museum; he liked visiting it every once in a while. In the dark, in the dead of night however, it was definitely a different place. Most noticeable was the feeling that right now, he really wasn't supposed to be here. Skullboy's eyes were adjusting to the darkness, and it was now almost clear enough to carefully make his way around. He stayed put, as Bones had asked though. He was pretty sure the Museum would have concealed security devices, devices that Bones, having been a 'liberator' for longer, would probably know were there. And Skullboy had never read up on how one might go about robbing a Museum – it had never crossed his mind he might do it one day.

Still, there was one rather obvious security device Skullboy had guessed would be there – security cameras.

"So… how do we avoid those?" he asked Bones when he joined him. He pointed up to a security camera, blinking away up near the ceiling, one eerily disjointed eye staring down at them.

Bones slipped on a pair of night vision goggles before he answered. "It should have a blind spot… we'll have to carefully walk around…"

"I've got a better idea…" Skullboy riffled through the bag he had brought. "I… er… thought there might be security cameras… and I know you asked if I was good at making stuff… so I did…" He produced a small crossbow, and a Polaroid camera.

"Go on…" said Bones, eyeing the devices carefully. Though worried about setting something off, his curiosity had been aroused.

"With this we can fool the camera. Give it a false picture and then walk right past." He took the Polaroid camera, took a photo of the Museum in roughly the direction the security camera pointed. Then he took the photo, tied it to a small plunger tipped arrow, and then fired it using the crossbow across the camera's view. The plunger stuck, and the photo flopped down in front of the single eye.

"We can walk right past now," he continued. "Anyone who looks will just see the photo, and think nothing's wrong. Brilliant, huh?"

"Brilliant… though overly elaborate. We'll just sneak around the others in this hall, but yeah, let's use that for any of the others that are more in our way. We'll be able to move around more freely. Good job, Skullboy!" he grinned, and slapped his brother on the back.

"Heh… thanks…" Skullboy gave a small smile. The compliment made him feel good… though not quite.

They traversed through the halls of the Museum with little incident, blinding only one of the security cameras with Skullboy's method, and sneaking around the rest.

Eventually, they came to the room that held the Crystal Skull.

"Well… there it is…"

Skullboy had seen the item on display before, but hadn't really taken more than a passing interest in it.

"Isn't it beautiful?" Bones grinned, eyes fixed unwaveringly on the Crystal Skull. "Come on, blind those cameras so we can get this beauty… I'll show you how a real liberator works."

Once the camera watching the Crystal Skull was out of service Bones slipped on his night vision goggles again. "Yeah, just as I thought. This thing is protected by an alarm system. If we trip one of those, it'll set off the alarms. Here, look…"

Skullboy took the goggles from his brother, and peered through. Around the Crystal Skull he could now just barely make out lots and lots of thin white lines. "Are those…"

"Spiders webs? Yeah. And look up there…" Bones guided Skullboy to look up in one of the corners of the room. A large spider, almost the size of Skullboy's head sat up there, sleeping peacefully. At least for now.

"Touch them, and you're dead…" said Bones.

"What!?"

"I'm just kidding! But they _will_ alert her, and she'll set off the alarms… then we will be in trouble." He took back the night vision goggles, so he could see the webs. "Now… just sit there real quiet, okay Skullboy? I need to concentrate."

Skullboy fidgeted nervously as Bones made his way towards the Crystal Skull. Bone's movements appeared most odd. He seemed to be quite awkwardly stepping around nothing. And he was going so slowly. Skullboy glanced up at the spider. He could just barely make her out without the goggles.

"Got it!" Bones exclaimed in a loud whisper, startling Skullboy. He now held the artefact in his hands, and it glittered in a faint shard of moonlight that had somehow made it through the darkness of the Museum.

"Good, then can we get out of here?" Skullboy was now starting to feel more nervous. He wasn't exactly afraid of the spider. But if she caught them in there… if his friends found out what he was doing… how was he supposed to explain what he was doing? He wasn't even sure himself.

"Relax… I've got to get out of here now…" Bones started making his way back, again appearing to be cautiously stepping around nothing. And again, excruciatingly slow.

"Come on…" Skullboy muttered. He could've sworn the spider just made a yawning noise.

"Just be…" Bones started to snap, and then paused, frozen on one foot like he was pretending to be a statue.

"Bones…?"

"I just touched a web…." Bones whispered, as if that might make some sort of difference.

The two paused, and for a moment the entire Museum seemed completely quiet. Out of the silence they could just barely hear a faint hum, the strand of web Bones had touched vibrating the still air.

Then there was a horrendous hissing noise, and black shape dropped to the ground from the spider's corner. The spider raised her front legs above herself, and saliva dripped from her mouth. "You jusssst sssstop right there!" she hissed.

"Um, we're just… tourists!" Skullboy squeaked, taking a step backwards.

Bones flung the bit of web off himself, whipped a torch out of his backpack and switched it on, shining it in the spiders eight beady eyes.

The spider hissed, crunching down and covering her eyes.

"Come on! We've got to go!" Bones growled, grabbing a stunned looking Skullboy by the wrist and dragging him after him.

Seconds later, alarms began to blare around them.

"I hope you didn't hurt her…" said Skullboy.

"What!? You should be worried about _us_!" said Bones.

"Oh no… we're in trouble, aren't we?"

"Not if I can help it…"

The two rounded a corner to the front entrance of the Museum. They skidded to a halt.

Lined up in front of the entrance were half a dozen canines. When they saw the two brothers they snarled, and began to advance.

"Change of plans!" said Bones, suddenly turning to the right.

Skullboy dodged after him, puffing as he tried to keep up. Still, he had plenty of motivation to keep going.

They returned to where they had entered the Museum in the first place. But the dogs were right on their heels.

"Hurry up!" Bones shouted at Skullboy, who had fallen slightly behind.

"Wait up!" Skullboy shouted. He could swear he could feel the closest dog's breath right behind him.

Bones paused only briefly, then dived through the circular hole in the pane.

Skullboy tried to pick up the pace, but the dog behind them just managed to get a nip on his heel, bringing him crashing to the ground. "Bones!" he shouted out, though his brother didn't reply. Something bounced out from the bag he carried, finding itself next to his right hand.

The lead hound circled him, growling, a part of his brain analysing the threat this creature posed. Deciding it was little, it darted forward to pin Skullboy down.

Skullboy grabbed the small crossbow next to this hand and fired the arrow it held right onto the tip of the dog's snout.

It yelped, leaping backwards in surprise and knocking over the dogs behind it.

Skullboy leapt to his feet and dove out the window. His heart was racing as he dashed across the Museum grounds towards where Bones had hidden the motorcycle. Behind him, he could hear the dogs barking, and the Museum alarm blaring.

Bones was on the motorcycle, engine revving, and looking a little agitated. "Good, you made it!" he sighed when Skullboy appeared.

"You could've waited for me… helped me!" Skullboy managed to gasp out, though he was nearly breathless.

"I _am_ waiting! And we don't have the time to either!" He dragged Skullboy onto the motorcycle behind him. "Now let's _go_!"

They ripped out from the bushes just as three hounds bounded down onto the road behind them. They yipped and barked, but the motorcycle easily pulled away.

"Another job well done!" Bones laughed, his voice barely audible over the motorcycles whine.

Skullboy just gripped his arms tightly around his brother's waist, and didn't answer. Right now he was just glad to have gotten out of there. He wasn't sure what scared him more: what the dogs might've done had they got a hold of him, or what Ruby would think if she ever found out. Either way, he'd still just robbed the Gloomsville Museum. And if this was what he was supposed to do with his life… well, somehow he'd thought that realisation would carry far more joy than he felt now.


End file.
